Development of a proxy wealth index for women utilizing emergency obstetric care in Bangladesh

There are increasing concerns regarding inequities in access to health care, and hence calls for routine data collection to improve monitoring. For many developing countries, such as Bangladesh, increasing the availability and uptake of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) is vital in improving maternal health. It is crucial, however, that women of all socio-economic status benefit from this. This paper describes the development and validation of a proxy wealth index for assessing women's socio-economic status in Bangladesh as they are admitted to hospital. Existing poverty assessment tools are unsuitable for use in this context as they are too lengthy or need to be administered at household or community level. We sought to develop a tool with a limited number of indicators…